Omnia Mutantur

There was a latin saying in Reformation times that read, “Omnia Mutantur Nos Est Mutamur In Ellis,” which translated in anglo read, “Times are changed, we also are changed with them.” These words along Ad Fontes (Back to the Sources) and Five Solas were the battlecry of The Protestant Reformation. 

These words were not a pluralist phrase or some liberal theology that condones the church mutating into something anti biblical, rather they encapsulated the idea that times were changing, a wind of reform had come to sweep away Medieval Catholic Superstition and false gospels, and replaced them with a Reformed Church with the True Gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone.   

I believe Omnia Mutantur Nos Est Mutamur In Ellis is moving again, changes are coming to the Church once more, not theologically, doxiogically and scripturally, but in how the Church functions. For so long an imperium christus (byzantine and medieval church) reigned with its ritual, then came scholasti correctionis inpositis (Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, Reformed), in time spiritus sancti manifestos (Moravian, Pentecostalism, and Jesus Movement) came, and now I believe we are seeing yet another Omnia Mutanur. 

In many ways the church did not change in the 16th Century. The Magistratium who controlled Scripture and how it was to interpreted survived. This the Roman Catholic clergy’s dominion over Scripture simply passed to Reformed Clergy . The Protestant Reformation did allow Scripture to become available to the masses in their own language, but most denominations built a new Magistratium, one comprised of their pastor or vicar whose pulpit now replaced an Eucharistic altar. Essentially Little changed in this area, with scholars retaining the monopoly on Scriptural understanding. While the gospel was indeed loosed from its Babylonian Captivity, and Salvation was restored to people by grace through faith in Christ, people still depend on men to interpret God’s Scripture for them when Christ said call no one a teacher and to be taught by Him, “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:8-12). 

The Mutantur has stagnated despite the re-infusion of the Holy Spirit manifestations and gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) that came with the Moravian Brethren, and later the Jesus Movement of the 1970’s. The masses still cling to their magistratiums rather than the Messiah himself revealing himself to them through Scripture and a personal relationship with Him. We came far in the 16th Century, but there is still more Omnia Mutantur. We must continue to let God change the parts of the Church still clinging to Medieval methods and customs. Christ never changes, “Jesus Christ never changes! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8), nor do His words, and neither do the Scriptures in which they are contained. But the Church changes, not in theology and doctrines, but in getting closer to how it originally was in 33-100 A.D. There are still many changes, Omnia Mutantur through Christ will make to the Church before He returns, and among those that does need to change is a dependence on so called teachers who act as mini-popes who decide what Scripture means, and a laity that remains idle and as spectators, rather than priests who know and can rightly divide Scripture for themselves via Christ and the Holy Spirit, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you,” (John 14:26), and “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father--the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father--he will testify about me.” (John 15:26). 

The time has come for Omnia Mutantur Nos Est Mutamur In Ellis. The times have changed, we have unprecedented access to Scripture, and we as a church must change. The time has come to end a corrupt priesthood that came into formation through Constantine, and each Christian be a priest of Christ, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light,” (1 Peter 2:9), and “from Jesus, the Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 1:5-6, Jubliee 2000 Bible). Trusting a corruptible man to do all the interpreting of Scripture must end, bring death to the reformed magistratium and instead test what is preached with an acute knowledge of Scripture ourselves. For Christ can with Holy Spirit and the Father, teach us all things (John 14:26). If a teacher expounds the truth than good, but be ready to test what is said and challenge it if it differs from Scripture. Do not remain spectators, an audience, but rise from your apathy as an ambassador of Christ armed with the words of God for yourself! For councils, ministers,  and spiritual leaders can be deceived, look at the religious elite known as the Pharisees in Jesus’ Day, they were crooked and kept people out of heaven, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either” (Matthew 23:13). Let Omnia Muntanur through the Spiritus Sancti mutate our Church back; let is change our Church back to what we see in the New Testament. Amen.